A 20-year-old Portland man's jaw was broken in three places and he had five teeth knocked out in a confrontation early Saturday morning at the MAX line Skidmore Fountain station in downtown Portland, his companion says.

Taylor Appelo was hospitalized at Legacy Emanuel Hospital & Health Center. He also had multiple facial cuts, a broken rib and a dislocated thumb, family members said. He underwent surgery on his jaw Saturday evening.

Portland police officers took a report on the attack and detectives will probably start investigating the case Monday, spokesman Mike Marshman said. Detectives will want to view video images of the Skidmore Fountain MAX site, he said.

"If they had photographs of the suspects that would be a huge help," he said.

The alleged attack comes at a time of heightened safety concern by TriMet.

In September, TriMet announced it would add 15 new transit police officers, more personnel inspecting for fares and more security cameras at light-rail stations to deal with public concern about safety.

The transit agency started changing the way it dealt with security after a November 2007 baseball bat beating of a 71-year-old man at a Gresham MAX station. Other incidents, including a stranger-on-stranger attack last June involving teens, heightened the issue.

The injured man's companion, Clayton Hunt, 16, has been the sole source of information about the attack for police and media.

Hunt said in an interview that he and Appelo were waiting for a MAX train at the Skidmore Fountain stop about 1 a.m. Saturday. The pair, both holding skateboards, planned to get on a train to take them to the Washington Park stop to skateboard downhill.

Four men, three of whom appeared to be in their mid-20s and one perhaps older, approached and almost immediately began making threatening statements, Hunt said.

"They told us we walked into the wrong tunnel," Hunt said, referring to the area underneath Burnside Avenue.

One man "came up to me and told me and Taylor he wanted to lay one of us out on the tracks," Hunt said. "He said he was drunk and looking for a fight."

Hunt said he and Appelo started walking away from the four but they followed and one of them shoved Appelo, who bumped into Hunt. Both fell onto the track surface.

One man attacked Appelo and another tackled and attacked Hunt, Hunt said.

"After I got tackled, he hit me in the head," Hunt said, "and then I got up and Taylor said we needed to leave and we ran up the stairs."

Appelo and Hunt fled up nearby stairs leading to Burnside Avenue.

One of the four, however, pursued them up the stairs and onto the sidewalk next to Burnside, Hunt said, and when Appelo turned, the man struck him in the face with such force that Appelo fell onto the sidewalk.

"I saw him hit the ground really hard, face first," Hunt said. "I saw a lot of blood everywhere. I saw his teeth on the ground. It was really scary."

Two passers-by called police, said Hunt, who gave information to the officers. Dispatchers got another call from a nearby hotel, a Portland police spokesman said.

Police are looking for more information, including why it took 15 minutes for anyone to call police and why the victims didn't call themselves, Marshman said. Officers tried to talk to people in the area at the time, but found no witnesses.

Hunt's stepfather, Dave Tobin, a TriMet employee, said Saturday evening that security cameras at the Skidmore Fountain stop may have captured images of the four attackers. Tobin, a field equipment maintenance technician for the transit agency, helps maintain the security cameras.

Bekki Witt, a TriMet spokeswoman, said the agency is looking into the incident.

Witt was not certain how many cameras are at the Skidmore Fountain stop or where they are positioned. Video is stored in the system for two weeks. She said the recording would probably be examined Monday.

Appelo had been unemployed recently and living in a Portland apartment, said his father, Erik Appelo, of Ridgefield, Wash.

His son is an avid skateboarder, he said, and his other son, Devin Appelo, is a professional skateboarder.